Two Toronto groups want Canadian workers to call in sick en masse as a protest against ‘the attacks of the one per cent.’ ‘Harperitis’

Two Toronto groups are exhorting Canadian workers to call in sick en masse next Tuesday, on May Day, as a protest against “the attacks of the one per cent.”

Members of the groups wearing yellow smiley-face masks unfurled a nine-metre-wide banner Tuesday morning from a bridge over Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, telling motorists that next Tuesday, observed in dozens of countries as a workers’ holiday, is “a good day to be sick.”

An accompanying news release says “people are suffering with Harperitis and have serious headaches from Fordotrophy,” referring to right-wing Toronto mayor Rob Ford, “which makes it really hard to work and make a living. They should call in sick on May 1…. A nice day in the sun will help.”